Local Spotlight Producer: R&R Cultivation
Mushrooms are one of the most polarizing foods on the planet. You either love ’em or you refuse to eat them. We’ve all seen someone pick mushrooms out of a dish and create a small pile of the superfood fungus. Better yet, we’ve all seen that same person scoop a second helping onto their plate and rave about the flavor without realizing it contains finely chopped mushrooms!
If even you’re not a major mushroom fan, the nutritional value of these vitamin-loaded fungi is enough reason to give them another shot.
Small Beginnings, Big Growth
After living in Shanghai, China for three years and visiting 12 countries to learn what other areas of the world had to offer, Nick Robinson returned to the United States in 2015 with a need to give back to his community in a local and meaningful way. Having worked in education for three years and serving on a school board, Nick was quickly drawn into the world of sustainable living and urban farming through his friend, Lance Ramm.
Not long after, R&R Cultivation came to be when Nick and Lance started growing mushrooms in a 4-foot by 4-foot tent in Nick’s basement. In this small tent grew enough mushrooms to begin selling at Twin Cities farmers’ markets and experienced an incredible amount of success right off the bat. They left nearly every farmers market they attended empty-handed and sold out all of their mushrooms each week!
Expansion
One year later, they expanded into a warehouse in March 2019 and officially moved out of the basement tent. The move allowed Nick and Lance to increase their mushroom production by 800%!
In just two short years, the duo has been able to launch R&R Cultivation in a small-basement tent and grow into a full-scale urban farm in Roseville, Minnesota!
And the types of mushrooms they grow are just as impressive! R&R offers your standard types (oyster, shiitake, pioppino) but also grow more elaborate options such as Lion’s Mane, Pink Oyster, Chestnut, and Maitake.
Try Them Today
A recent addition to our produce department, you can find varieties of R&R Cultivation 100% USDA-Certified Organic mushrooms in our refrigerated produce cooler!
Learn more about R&R Cultivation on their website: RRcultivation.com